A wide variety of gloves with enhanced exterior gripping surfaces have been designed and used over the past century. The following describes patents and/or publications which are related to the Applicant's inventive concept. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,787 discloses a glove having a flexible body with a plurality of discrete abrading units disposed on the glove to permit free flexing of the finger stalls, the thumb and palm. The abrading units comprise a plurality of hard and sharp particles such as silicon carbide dispersed in an adhesive. The abrading units are fixedly connected to the glove surface by a waterproof adhesive.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,778 designed a highly stretchable surgical glove which discloses an oval structure from front-to-back at the mid joint area of the wearer's fingers, and a side-to-side ovaling of the glove portion near the mid point of the wearer's fingernail. Thereby it is claimed that the glove has added flexibility and tactile sensitivity at the tip section of the glove's fingers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,444 shows an improved surgical glove that contains a smooth latex skin coated onto the front surface of the glove so that surgical tape will not stick thereto. A textured contoured flap is pivotably secured to tips of the finger portions of the glove while another textured contoured flap is pivotably secured to the tip of the thumb portion of the glove so that the wearer can increase their grip to hold various items.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,640,341 discloses single and two-sided hand and finger thimbles constructed to mount over the fingertips to provide non-slip gripping surfaces and improved protection at the fingertips and palm. Several thimbles include surfaces that contain impenetrable shields, elastomer pads, or raised patterns of a coated elastomer.
US patent application publication 2008/0235850 features a “hand covering” comprising a gripping region of mesh material having a first permeability and a first coefficient of friction. Regions of the hand covered by other than the gripping region are covered by a different material having a second coefficient of friction lower than the first and a second permeability lower than the first permeability.
US publication 2010/0011484 discloses knit fabric gloves having grip/protective members, and also describes a process of manufacturing same. One embodiment comprises depositing an adhesive onto a backside of a sheet of grip/protective material, and fusing the adhesive to the backside of the sheet of grip/protective material using a heat/pressure procedure.
Surgical gloves typically comprise a smooth exterior, or they may comprise texturing that attempts to increase the grip or frictional resistance of the glove when interacting with objects. Smooth exterior elastomeric gloves are often inadequate for manipulating wet or otherwise slippery objects. Existing textured gloves are known to inhibit or decrease tactile feedback to the user. With reduced tactile feedback, users are prone to have difficulty manipulating slippery objects, such as organs, which may result in tissue injury.
Another drawback common to textured gloves is a reduced flexing ability. Frequently, in order to apply texturing, additional material must be applied to the glove. The additional material can make these gloves stiff and hard to flex thereby decreasing the dexterity of a gloved hand. Likewise, with reduced dexterity, users are also prone to have difficulty manipulating slippery objects which may also result in tissue injury.
In order to limit the amount of material that is added to the glove for texturing, many textured gloves consist of texturing on one side of the glove resulting in the glove being hand specific. The hand specific factor limits the longevity and the usage of these gloves such as in the event of one glove getting damaged which automatically renders the other glove of the pair as unusable, since each glove is hand specific.
Due to these drawbacks, the lack of strong grip in the various gloves presently being used often makes a user vulnerable to fatigue during prolonged glove usage common during surgeries. The lack of firm grip makes the tissue grasping less precise and controllable while being held in the hands and thus results in unnecessary tissue damage and an uncomfortable work environment.